HB1261: Full House to Vote on THC/DUI Bill (Tues.)

HB1261, the Colorado THC/DUI bill, will be debated and voted on
by the full Colorado House of Representatives for the first time
on Tuesday morning, March 22. This is known as the bill's Second
Reading, and more amendments are possible.

HB1261 would declare that anyone found driving with 5 nanogram/milliliters
or more of THC in their bloodstream would be guilty of "DUI
per se" and subject to a misdemeanor offense and the possible
revocation of their driver's license.

The bill passed out of the House Appropriations Committee on Friday
(3/18). The committee allocated $22,000 to the Department of Revenue
to pay programmers to update the Driver License System database
to collect the new THC/DUI data.

ACTION ALERT
It is VITALLY IMPORTANT that you write RESPECTFUL emails and make
phone calls telling your Representative that the DUI/THC bill is
unfounded and unnecessary and may cause medical marijuana patients
to become a targets for DUI arrests.

Talking Points- HB1261 is unfair to medical marijuana patients and will force
patients back on prescription medications that do not have nanogram
levels and are not routinely tested for by the police.
- HB1261 will require a "forced blood draw", forcing anyone
suspected of driving under the influence of THC to submit to a blood
draw forced by the state. Currently, alcohol levels can be tested
through urine, breath or blood. But under the THC/DUI bill, the
nanogram count can only come from a forced blood draw.
- The sponsor of HB1261, Rep. Claire Levy (D-Boulder) admits that
she cannot point to one single accident caused solely by marijuana
and that the research on setting a nanogram limit as evidence of
impairment is "all over the place."
- Contrary to other reports, the "per se" part of the
bill has *not* been removed. This means that a person charged with
THC/DUI can still introduce evidence that their blood level was
below the "per se" number, but cannot introduce evidence
that, in spite of the number, they were not impaired. Ask your Representative
to remove the "per se" standard from the bill and allow
patients to present behavioral evidence that they were not impaired.
- Ask your Representative to include an exemption for medical marijuana
patients.

Contact Your State Representatives
The Colorado Coalition for Patients and Caregivers has compiled
the 2011 list of Colorado Senators and Representatives as both a
Printable PDF and Excel Spreadsheet. These spreadsheets also includes
the votes the Reps. had last year on the two anti-patient bills
of the 2010 session (HB1284 and SB109) Click here to download these
files:http://www.cannabistherapyinstitute.com/advocacy/contact.colorado.state.legislature.html

Email Colorado State Representatives
If you want to email your letter to all the Colorado State House
Representatives, here is a list that you can cut and paste into
the BCC (Blind Carbon Copy) field of your email program:

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